RECAP: THE 2017 AGE MUSIC VICTORIA AWARDS- 170 Russell, 22/11/17
The night started promptly, with a Welcome to Country. Following this, it was straight into the awards. The 2017 awards were claimed by both new and previous winners. King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, The Teskey Brothers, and A.B. Original stole the show, each act winning multiple awards.
With prizes on the night ranging from a $20 000 Moshtix marketing package, to a Bakehouse rehearsal package, to a $2000 Virgin Australia travel voucher, and a $3000 cash prize generously donated by APRA AMCOS, the well deserving winners certainly did not go home empty handed.
The awards were split up into two categories, Genre and Public-Voted. The wider Victorian community were given the opportunity to have their say on their favourite Victorian artists, bands, live acts and venues. The Genre Awards were decided by a specialised panel of selected people from within the industry.
The full list of winners is below:
GENRE AWARDS
BEST BLUES ALBUM
Fiona Boyes: “Professin’ The Blues”
BEST COUNTRY ALBUM
Raised By Eagles: “I Must Be Somewhere”
BEST SOUL, FUNK, RNB, AND GOSPEL ALBUM
The Teskey Brothers: “Half Mile Harvest”
BEST JAZZ ALBUM
Brenton Foster: “The Nature of Light”
BEST HIP HOP ALBUM
A.B. Original: “Reclaim Australia”
BEST ELECTRONIC ACT
Client Liaison
BEST HEAVY ALBUM
Divide and Dissolve: “Basic”
BEST ABORIGINAL ACT
A.B. Original
BEST GLOBAL OR REGGAE ALBUM
Lamine Sonko and the African Intelligence: “Afro Empire”
BEST FOLK OR ROOTS ALBUM
The Mae Trio: “Take Care, Take Cover”
BEST EXPERIMENTAL / AVANT-GARDE ACT
Winter Sound School / Bridget Chappell
PUBLIC-VOTED AWARDS
BEST FESTIVAL
Meredith Music Festival
BEST REGIONAL VENUE (UNDER 50 GIGS PER YEAR)
Theatre Royal, Castlemaine
BEST REGIONAL VENUE (OVER 50 GIGS PER YEAR)
The Workers Club, Geelong
BEST VENUE (UNDER 500 CAPACITY)
The Tote
BEST VENUE (OVER 500 CAPACITY)
The Corner Hotel
BEST REGIONAL ACT
Cosmic Psychos
BEST LIVE BAND
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard
BEST EMERGING ACT
The Teskey Brothers
BEST MALE ARTIST
Paul Kelly
BEST FEMALE ARTIST
Jen Cloher
BEST SONG
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard: “Rattlesnake”
BEST BAND
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard
BEST ALBUM
A.B. Original: “Reclaim Australia”
Concluding the awards ceremony was the induction of the late Tony Cohen into the Music Victoria Hall of Fame. Tony was a music producer and sound engineer, who over the course of his career worked with groups such as The Birthday Party, and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. His induction was accompanied with a video, compiled of many people in the industry, including Molly Meldrum.
Emcees Chris Gill and Lyndelle Wilkinson did a wonderful job of keeping the audience engaged, and even accepted awards on a few artist’s behalfs. Wrapping up the ceremony, once again promptly, the Afterparty then kicked off.
With MzRizk on the decks and performances from Archie Roache, Mojo Juju, Gretta Ray, Josh Teskey and more, and full sets from Cable Ties, Gold Class, and Harvey Sutherland and Bermuda, the crowd were up on their feet and dancing away the night. It was the perfect way to wrap up another year of music in Melbourne, demonstrating just how incredible and diverse the Melbourne Music Scene truly is.
Written by Jordyn Hoekstra